The focus of this unit of work is reading thermometers and investigating (predicting and comparing) world weather temperatures.
- Recognise the need for a standard unit of temperature.
- Measure temperature (degrees Celcius) with a thermometer.
- Calculate changes in temperatures.
Temperature is the measure of how hot or cold things are. Students can perceive large differences in temperature and are exposed , on an everyday basis, to wide ranges in the temperature of objects (for example, cold drinks and hot showers). We use the Celsius system of measurement, in which 0 degrees is the temperature where ice and water can exist together without one freezing or the other melting. The other fixed point on the Celsius scale is the 100 degree mark. This is where water boils.
The hottest temperature ever recorded in New Zealand is 42.4 degrees (Rangiora, Canterbury) and the coldest is -25.6 degrees (Ranfurly, Central Otago).
The learning opportunities in this unit can be differentiated by providing or removing support to students and by varying the task requirements. Ways to differentiate include:
- explicitly teaching and modelling how to correctly read the temperature on a thermometer
- using digital and analogue thermometers
- encouraging independent tracking of the temperature if appropriate, or including it as part of the classroom routine (collaboration - mahi tahi)
- encouraging students to work in pairs or small groups (organising small groups of students to be comprised of students with mixed levels of confidence and mathematical understanding to encourage greater peer learning (tuakana teina)
- providing workshops, templates, and teaching at a slower pace for groups of students who need support with recording and displaying results.
The activities in this unit can be adapted to make them more interesting by adding contexts that are familiar to them. Encourage students to tell stories about hot/cold days that they remember, either at home, or if they have travelled to other parts of New Zealand or the world. Students might ask friends or family in other places to describe their experiences with hot or cold weather. You might like to track the daily temperature of countries that students' whānau live in or come from.
As an addition to this unit, you could investigate early methods of forecasting used by early Māori and Polynesian peoples, and European settlers. Early Māori used cloud patterns, colours, and formations of stars to predict the weather. Weather was a crucial aspect of their navigational and crop-planting systems. You could also make links to how our climate has changed over time, and how rising temperatures have affected different parts of the world. A guest from NIWA, your local museum, or your local marae might be able to come share their knowledge of temperature monitoring with your class.
Te reo Māori vocabulary terms such as mehua (measure), paemahana (temperature), and huarere (weather) could be introduced in this unit and used throughout other mathematical learning.
- Copymaster One
- Thermometers (digital and analogue if available)
- World map (digital or hard copy)
Getting Started
In this session we use thermometers to measure the temperature inside and outside the classroom. If possible, position several thermometers around the classroom and at least one outside the room. Digital and/or analogue thermometers could be used.
- Begin the session with a discussion about temperature in general, and the temperature of the classroom specifically.
What is temperature?
When is it useful to measure the temperature?
What temperature do you think it is inside our room today? - Ask questions about the guesses.
Why do you think it is that?
How could we check?
How do you write that?
Do you think everyone measures temperature using the same tools and same method?
What units do we use for temperature?
Does everyone use the same units for temperature? - Check the temperature in the classroom.
- Look in more detail at a thermometer and the calibrations used.
Draw attention to the scale (if using an analogue thermometer) and the display (if using a digital thermometer). Ākonga might notice the use of decimals (tenths) on the digital display and be able to equate these with their relevant position on an analogue thermometer. - Estimate and check the outside temperature.
Discuss the difference between your estimations and the actual temperature.
What is the difference between the actual temperature, and the temperature we estimated?
Encourage ākonga to use addition and subtraction strategies they are confident with.
Why are the temperatures different?
Encourage ākonga to consider what increases and decreases their own body temperature and the temperature outside (e.g. amount of clothing worn, air con/heaters, number of people in the room, there is more/less wind/sun/rain/cloud than there was when we made our estimation). - Explain to the students that we are going to monitor the temperature inside and outside the classroom over the week.
- Ask for ideas about how this could be carried out.
When?
Frequency?
By whom?
How to record? Let small groups of students make decisions about how they are going to record the data collected. Provide graphic organisers if necessary, for example:
Day
8:45 10:30 12:00 2:00 3:00 in out in out in out in out in out Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday
Exploring
Over the next 2-3 days the students will gather information about the weather in different countries and cities around the world. Information about the temperature is included in weather reports on news websites, newspapers and weather reports on the daily news. Websites such as weather.com and metservice.com provide current and long-range forecast and temperature predictions for cities and countries in Aotearoa and around the world. Provide students with these links and model how to navigate the pages and find the forecasts for different locations.
- Let the groups of students use a world map and select a country and 2 or 3 cities to investigate over the next 3 days. Consider grouping students to purposefully encourage tuakana teina. Attach a labelled pin to the map to indicate the countries that are going to be surveyed. As a class, make predictions about the temperatures in different parts of the world prior to collecting the information.
Which countries will have temperatures like Aotearoa?
Why do you think that?
Which countries will be very hot? Why do you think that?
Which countries will be very cold? Why do you think that? - Discuss the collection of weather information over the next 3 days.
- Tell the students that they will need to record and display their results ready for a presentation to the class at the end of the week. They will need to collect the following information:
- When? What time was it in the location when the temperature was measured?
- Frequency? How often did they monitor the temperature in their chosen location? You might decide on this as a class (e.g at 9am, 12:30pm, and 5pm) or give students guidelines to follow (e.g. measure the temperature at least 3 times a day)
- How did the temperature change? Students should record the changes in temperature, each time they record a new temperature. You could ask students to show the changes on a graph if they are confident constructing one by hand, or with the use of Microsoft Excel or Google Sheets.
- By whom? Who recorded the temperature each day?
- How to record? Provide graphic organisers and graphing templates for students to use as necessary.
- In addition you, or the students, should collect the long-range predictions for the closest Aotearoa city to your school. At the end of the unit, compare these with the actual temperatures recorded during the unit. These predictions can be found easily on weather.com by navigating to the 10 Day page.
- Monitor the groups to assess how they work together and their accuracy in temperature monitoring (e.g. do they write the degrees symbol? do they read the temperature in degrees Celsius? Can they accurately calculate the changes in temperature?). Provide additional support for students as needed.
Reflecting
- Explain to students that today we will compare the temperatures that we collected with the long-range forecast for our locality. We will then share the information collected by the groups of students in the class. We can use this to plot cities (and countries) on a large classroom thermometer chart (enlarge to A3). We will conclude by adding some other temperature facts to the thermometer.
- Discuss the temperatures collected outside the classroom during the week. Display the information on the wall for everyone to look at.
Which was the highest outside temperature collected?
Which was the lowest outside temperature collected?
What is the difference between the highest and lowest temperatures collected?
Which temperature best represents the temperatures this week? Why do you think that? - Place a mark (pin or sticker) against the most representative temperature for our locality on the thermometer chart (copymaster).
- Take turns letting the groups add their city to the chart.
Which city was the hottest?
What do you think that would feel like?
Has anyone been there before? Describe.
Which city was the coldest?
What do you think that would feel like?
How could we find out what it really feels like without going? - Conclude the lesson by attaching other temperature facts to the thermometer. (Obviously the thermometer will need to have a "broken" scale to include all these facts - post it notes with string or lines matching up to the temperature on the thermometer could work well) Instead of telling ākonga the facts you could leave them to investigate the answers. For example, the highest and lowest recorded temperatures in Aotearoa, the highest the lowest temperatures recorded in the location of your kura, the highest and lowest temperatures recorded in the world.
Dear family and whānau,
This week at school we have investigated the temperatures in countries around the world using information from weather.com and metservice.com. Ask your child to tell you about the city that they have been finding facts for. Investigate another country that your whānau is connected to and find out today’s temperatures.